A Beautiful Lie
by allurement
Summary: AU. “Ninjas don’t exist. You’re in the Konoha Psychiatric Hospital, Naruto. You’ve been here for the past eleven years.” In which Naruto struggles to accept reality, and misses a life that wasn’t even there to begin with.
1. Revelation 1: Ninjas Don’t Exist

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** None yet  
**Warnings:** Mild-violence. Abstration. Mentions of psychiatric wards and mental disorders.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

_On the ground I lay  
Motionless in pain  
I can see my life flashing before my eyes  
Did I fall asleep?  
Is this all a dream?  
Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare  
_— Three Days Grace

**Revelation **#1: Ninjas Don't Exist  
_And we don't go on secret missions and the like_

* * *

"This is an S-ranked mission. You three understand that, _right, Naruto?_"

Neji glanced sideways at the blonde, a smug expression in place. Shino continued to look straight ahead. Or maybe he was asleep. Naruto was never sure of what was _really_ going on behind those sunglasses.

"Hai, hai, Tsunade-baa-chan. I'll be careful, don't worry."

Tsunade muttered something under her breath before saying, "I want the three of you to be careful. I need not stress how important this mission is to Konoha, and how dangerous it will be, because you're all going to find that out sooner or later whether you want to or not. I chose you three for specific reasons, none of which I shall tell you, Naruto, stop fidgeting _now._ The information I am about to tell you will not leave this room. Got it?"

* * *

"So where's everyone going now? Neji?"

"Training," was Neji's short reply.

Naruto stared at him.

"Dude, you are _boring_ as hell. Ne, Shino, where are you off to?" Naruto asked, noticing that his friend had started walking off.

"I'm having dinner with Kiba and Hinata," Shino said.

"Hey! Can I come too?"

"I would have thought that you would want to spend the evening with Sakura."

"Nah," Naruto said. "She's been busy with hospital stuff lately, so she's probably tired now. I'll see her after our mission."

Neji coughed.

"Naruto… You do know that we might not come back from this mission, don't you?"

* * *

"What are we supposed to do again?"

Neji sighed for the umpteenth time.

"I told you just now; there's been an Akatsuki sighting in Amegakure."

Naruto blinked.

"So?"

"There's a Jinchuuriki in Amegakure. And this one isn't a ninja," Shino cut in before Neji could respond.

"So we protect the Jinchuuriki and kick some Akatsuki butt?" Naruto asked, grinning.

"Naruto," Neji said.

"Yeah?"

"Don't _ever_ use that phrase in my presence again."

"… Okay."

* * *

"Well… we're here?"

The trio looked around what was probably supposed to be a marketplace, only to find it deserted.

Suddenly, from nowhere, they attacked.

* * *

"Ah! Tsunade-sama! He's come around!"

Suddenly, Naruto found himself being shaken awake.

"Naruto? Naruto? Can you hear me? Wake up. Naruto"

Naruto groggily opened his eyes, expecting to find himself in a Konoha hospital, or even in an abandoned shack nearby. Instead, all he saw was… white.

"Get the jacket ready!" he heard Tsunade bark.

Before he could completely register his surroundings, he found himself being forced into a white straight-jacket by three other people.

"Naruto," Tsunade repeated, bending down so she was eye-level with him.

"Baa-chan?" Naruto called out groggily, his throat parched.

Tsunade held out four fingers to Naruto and asked him, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Four. Ne, baa-chan, why am I in this?" Naruto asked. "And where am I? This doesn't look like Konoha."

Behind Tsunade, the men began whispering to each other.

"You don't remember?"

"I… remember being sent on a mission with Neji and Shino, and we were near Amegakure when a bunch of missing-nin ambushed us," Naruto recalled. "What happened to them?"

"Neji and Shino are here. They're safe," Tsunade said.

Naruto stared at her.

"Ne, baa-chan," he said. "I'm perfectly fine, I swear. You can let me go now."

When Tsunade made no move to take off the jacket, he checked his right thigh, which donned a grey tracksuit bottom and then scanned the room. His bedside table was empty, save for a glass of water.

"Where are my weapons?" he asked.

"Naruto—" Tsunade began.

"What is this? Is this a genjutsu?" Naruto demanded.

"Not this farce again," one of the men at the back muttered to his friend next to him.

"This isn't a genjutsu," Tsunade said.

"Then what are you doing here?" Naruto asked. "Were you captured by enemy shinobi as well?"

Two of the men snorted.

"Naruto," Tsunade began slowly, "there isn't such thing as shinobi."

Naruto blinked.

"Wait, what?" he asked, puzzled. "How can you say that? We're both shinobi. We come from a village, Konoha. Did you get knocked on the head or something, baa-chan?"

Tsunade sighed.

"No, we're not shinobi, Naruto. We don't come from a village and we don't go around on secret missions and such," she explained tiredly.

"You're kidding right—?"

"No, I'm not," Tsunade interrupted. "You're not a ninja, Naruto."

"Yes I am!" Naruto protested.

"Ninjas don't exist," one of the men spat from the back.

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"Baa-chan," he said. "Tell that bastard he's wrong."

Tsunade sighed again.

"Naruto—"

"Tell him!" Naruto shouted. "Or better yet, tell me how I got here, why I'm in a straight-jacket and just where the hell I am!"

Tsunade hesitated, looking at him with something akin to pity and explained, "You came here when you were five."

"Where?" Naruto shouted.

"To the Konoha Psychiatric Hospital. You've been here for the past eleven years."

* * *

**A/N:**

Because I _reeeeeeeeally_ need another project to work on. Ugh, someone shoot me now.

All chapters on this will be very short, because it would be so much easier and because I suck. On the upside, that means updates will come faster :D

SHINO. AND SPEAKING LINES. OH, THAT WAS THE BEST PART.

Don't be surprised if the title changes everytime you see the link. It's just me.


	2. Revelation 2: You’re Not An Orphan

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** None yet  
**Warnings:** Mild-violence. Abstration. Mentions of psychiatric wards and mental disorders.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

**Revelation #2:** You're Not An Orphan  
_Your parents aren't dead_

* * *

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not."

"But you have to be!" Naruto burst out. "Either that, or I'm trapped in some kind of genjutsu! Yeah, that's it! I'm in a genjutsu, and all I have to do is just break out of it—"

"Naruto, that's enough!"

"—now…" Naruto trailed off, seeing the furious look on Tsunade's face.

"Listen to me," she seethed. "I'm trying to be patient here, Naruto, but you're making this a lot harder than need be. You're… you're ill. You've been ill for a very long time, Naruto—"

"But—"

"—and it's been causing you to have hallucinations," Tsunade continued, cutting him off. "As far as we can tell, you've been like this ever since you were born, but your parents didn't bring you here until you were five."

Naruto's throat went dry.

"My… my parents?" he croaked, not daring to believe it. "You—you mean they're _alive?_"

Tsunade nodded.

"I—Where are they?" Naruto demanded. "Can I see them? Do they live here as well?"

"No, they don't," Tsunade replied. "They visit you twice a week though. Yesterday was one of their visiting days. They'll come again on Sunday."

"What day is it today?"

"Thursday."

"Oh," Naruto said, calming down. He stared at the tiled floor mutely for a few minutes.

Tsunade, seeing that he had quietened down, told the men behind her in hushed voices to leave the room, and that _yes, I _can _handle a teenager in a straight-jacket; so can you _please_ leave me alone now?_

Once they had left the room, Naruto looked up and asked Tsunade to help him take off the straight-jacket.

When Tsunade ignored him, and instead drew open the curtains in front of her, Naruto tried again.

"Ne, baa-chan. The others are gone now. You can stop pretending and let me out."

Tsunade sighed wearily and looked out of the window.

"Baa-chan—"

"Naruto, stop it, _please_," she interrupted, sounding tired and haggard. She walked over to the bed Naruto was sitting on and grasped his shoulders and squeezed them tightly. "Please, Naruto," she pleaded. "Stop it. This has been going on for too long now. It's not healthy."

Naruto stared at the amber eyes in front of him. This couldn't be his Tsunade-baa-chan. _His_ Tsunade-baa-chan might look haggard and worn out sometimes, because heck, she was an old lady! But this look-alike, this _not_-Tsunade looked so… so _defeated_, and his Hokage always had hope, if nothing else.

"Baa-chan," was all he could say.

"Don't you want to get better, Naruto?" she asked him. "Don't you want to go home to be with your family again?"

"F-Family?"

Tsunade nodded eagerly, smiling kindly at him.

"Yes," she said, giving his shoulders another squeeze. "When you woke up last time, you said you were an orphan, and that nobody cared about you. That's not true, Naruto. You have a mother, a father and two younger siblings who love you very, very much, and who come and see you as often as they can."

Naruto opened his mouth but could find no words.

"Every time they come, your mother always ends up crying," Tsunade continued, "because just looking at the state you're in upsets her, and all she wants to do is just take you home and look after you. It's been like this for the past eleven years. Do you want to keep doing this to her?"

"No!" Naruto said, choking up.

"Then stop this madness. You got better once, you can do it again."

"What?"

"You… have these spells where you fall into a coma and don't wake up," Tsunade explained. "The doctors and I have reasoned that's when you're living your 'ninja'-world. But when you were thirteen, you woke up, and didn't fall back into your coma state. You got better, Naruto," she said, "and you went back home to be with your family, and you led a normal life, just like everybody else."

"Then why am I back here?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade's smile faltered and her hands slid off his shoulders.

"Two and a half years after you got better, your hallucinations came back. We could have stopped them, but you just wouldn't cooperate at the time, so you just fell back into that hole. Your parents were so disappointed, your mother especially. Do you want to disappoint her again?"

Naruto didn't reply.

"Naruto?"

"Okay," he said. "I'll try. I'll try to get better."

"Good." Tsunade beamed and began to undo the buckles on his straight-jacket.

* * *

**A/N:**

See, I told you updates would come quicker the shorter the chapters were.

I'm going to keep count of how many times I change the title from now on.

So: 1 :D

By the way, since I'm a uber n00b and don't follow the manga, can some Naruto-savvy person tell me whether Naruto knows who his parents are or not? Please and thank you!

The lack of Shino in this depresses me D:


	3. Revelation 3: Your Friends Are Here

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** None yet  
**Warnings:** Mild-violence. Abstration. Mentions of psychiatric wards and mental disorders.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

**Revelation #3:** Your Friends Are Here  
_Silly Naruto, have you forgotten us already?_

* * *

"You woke up just in time for dinner," Tsunade said. "Are you hungry?"

"Not really—"

Naruto's stomach disagreed with him, as it let out a large rumble.

"Okay then, maybe a bit," he said hastily.

"I'm not surprised. You haven't had solid food for almost a year. We've been feeding you through an IV drip ever since you fell unconscious."

Naruto couldn't think of anything to say, so he said nothing.

"Once you get out of the room, turn to your right and walk straight down. The cafeteria's there," Tsunade instructed. "All patients who are stable enough will be there having their meals as well. After dinner, they're given their medication and one hour to socialise before bedtime. It's six o'clock now. You have three hours. I want you back in here by nine, okay?"

Naruto nodded.

"Now, go get something to eat."

* * *

Naruto walked into the cafeteria uncertainly, unsure of what he was about to face.

He wasn't insane. He didn't have delusions of grandeur. He was a Konoha shinobi, and someone was messing with his mind. He had to snap out of it quickly. Naruto wondered how Neji and Shino were faring and whether they were subjected to the same fate.

He scanned the room. He had been on the verge of death countless times, had a demon fox imprisoned inside of him, and was the target of the most evil shinobi organisation on the planet. He could deal with this. He hoped.

His hands formed into a seal. "_Kai_," he hissed under his breath.

Nothing happened.

He concentrated harder. "_Kai!_" he repeated, this time with more vigour.

Maybe he was still too weak from the fight earlier, and genjutsu had never been his strong point anyway.

If only Sakura was with him—

A flash of pink caught his eye.

Naruto blinked and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Sakura was here? Maybe it was all part of the genjutsu, but she hadn't gone on the mission. She was still in Konoha, so there was no way the enemy-nin could know about her unless—

Unless they were in Konoha. That was it. Once they had ambushed him, Neji and Shino, another group must have gone to Konoha and done the same to the other ninjas there.

Naruto watched as Sakura giggled at something the person sitting opposite her did. Why was she laughing?

Naruto took a step forward, and another one, and another one, until he found himself in front of the table Sakura was sitting at.

"Sakura-chan…?" he asked, not daring to believe it.

Sakura looked up from her food and gasped delightedly.

"Naruto!" she exclaimed, leaping up from her seat and pulling him into a hug. "You're awake! Finally!"

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said seriously, pulling her away from him. "Where are we?"

"We're in the Konoha Psychiatric Hospital, silly," Sakura said, punching his arm lightly.

_Something's wrong_, Naruto thought. Out loud, he said to her urgently, "No, Sakura-chan, I meant _where are we?_ Is this a genjutsu? Can you break out of it?"

Sakura stared at him blankly momentarily before bursting out into a fit of giggles.

"What's so funny?" Naruto asked, not getting the joke.

"Nothing," Sakura said, stifling her laughter. "Okay, Naruto, but can we play your ninja-game after we finish eating please? We've got ramen tonight. You like ramen, right?"

"Wait, Sakura-chan, what do you mean? It isn't a game," Naruto said, grabbing Sakura's shoulders and shaking them slightly. "We have to get out of here, fast. I can't break out of the genjutsu, but you were always good with them, so you can do it, right?"

"If you say so," Sakura giggled. "Okay. I'll break us out of this 'genjutsu'. But after dinner, okay?"

Naruto let go of her shoulders, looking at her. Something was very wrong here. This wasn't Sakura. _His_ Sakura-chan wouldn't be so giggly and giddy, and wouldn't take capture so lightly. His Sakura-chan would probably have already broken out of the illusion by now.

"Who are you?" he asked sharply.

"Naruto," Sakura whined. "Come on, I'm hungry." She sat back down in her seat and continued eating her dinner. "Ne, Naruto. Sit down," Sakura said in between mouthfuls.

"Ah, no thanks. I'm not hungry," Naruto said, staring at her in disbelief before turning around. "I think I'll go now—"

"But Naruto! You haven't even said 'hello' to Sasuke-kun yet!" Sakura cried out.

Naruto whirled around.

"What?" he said.

"Naruto," Sakura chastised. "Did you brain cells die while you were sleeping?" She pointed her chopsticks at the person sitting opposite her.

Sasuke threw a brief glance at Naruto and continued to poke at his meal.

"Maybe you're right, Sasuke-kun," Sakura giggled. "He probably never had brain cells to begin with. But that's why we _loooove_ him, right?"

They managed to put Sakura under their control somehow. But Sasuke wouldn't be broken that easily, Naruto knew.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, sliding into the seat next to Sakura. "Sasuke, what's happening here?"

Sasuke merely looked at Naruto and didn't respond.

"Sasuke—"

"It's no use, Naruto," Sakura interrupted. "I'm the only one that can talk to Sasuke-kun."

Naruto blinked and turned to Sakura.

"We have a bond, you see," Sakura clarified.

"Sakura-chan… Why isn't Sasuke saying anything?" Naruto asked slowly.

"Silly Naruto-baka," Sakura said fondly, "have you forgotten already?"

"What—"

"Sasuke-kun can't speak."

* * *

**A/N:**

What is this? Three updates in a day? Ho yeah, I _own_.

Before anyone nags on me about OOC!ness, remember where they are and why they are there. Then come to me with witty comments. I dare you to :D

Dude, Sakura scares me in this.


	4. Revelation 4: Let Me Explain

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** None  
**Warnings:** Mild-violence. Abstration. Mentions of psychiatric wards.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

**Revelation #4:** Let Me Explain  
_I don't know what your imaginery friends were like, but these aren't them_

* * *

Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"W—What do you mean?" he croaked.

Sakura burst into a fit of giggles once more. Naruto stared at her. Who was this girl? Sasuke turned to him and gave him a helpless look, and shook his head slightly.

Once she had calmed down, Sakura said, "Silly Naruto. Sasuke can't speak. I'm the only one that can communicate with him."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

Sakura shrugged and patted the empty seat next to her, which Naruto sat down on uncertainly.

"No one knows," Sakura said once he was seated. "Technically, he _can_ speak. I mean, the doctors said his vocal chords and whatnot are working all right, so there's nothing physically wrong with him. He just… chooses not to."

Sasuke coughed, drawing the other two's attention to him. Sakura immediately burst into laughter once more.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, are _you_ all right?" Naruto asked, alarmed.

Sakura stopped laughing. Her light-hearted demeanour evaporated in an instant, and she turned to glare at Naruto.

"What are you talking about?" she snapped. "I'm perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with me!"

"All right, all right!" Naruto said, holding out his hands in front of him in surrender, but the damage was done.

"Naruto," Sakura growled, abandoning her meal. "What are you trying to say? Are you saying you think I'm insane?"

"No, Sakura-chan! I never said that!" Naruto assured her.

"Oh, but I think you did. Didn't he, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said, looking to Sasuke for support.

Sasuke merely looked at Naruto and rolled his eyes, returning to his dinner.

"See? Sasuke-kun agrees with me," Sakura proclaimed, glaring daggers at Naruto. "So, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Naruto stared at her, momentarily stunned.

"I, uh… I've got to go now," he mumbled, springing out of his seat and running out of the cafeteria before Sakura had any chance to reply.

He wanted to know what the hell was going on.

* * *

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto hissed.

After dinner, he had marched over to Tsunade's office and burst the door open, demanding to speak to her alone and ignoring the worried looks people threw him and their attempts to 'help him out'.

Tsunade sighed, removing her glasses and placing them gently on her desk.

"I thought we already went through this, Naruto," she said wearily.

"What happened to Sasuke and Sakura-cha—?"

Tsunade interrupted him with a sardonic chuckle.

"Eh?" Naruto said, halting mid-sentence and looking at her closely. "What?"

"Nothing. I just find it ironic that you came here asking me that right after one of your psychiatrists came here to speak to me on that very same matter," Tsunade clarified with a wave of her hand. "He was slightly worried you see; you always act like whenever you see them after you wake up."

Again with the ambiguousness. The white-washed walls, the knowing looks, the familiar faces, the "you always do this"—how well did these people think they knew him? Because he didn't know anything about them.

"You know what, baa-chan? I'm getting really tired of all these cryptic sentences that don't make sense _at all_, and I would really like it if you could just explain properly _for once_ what's going on!"

Tsunade regarded him closely for a moment before gesturing to a chair in front of her and said, "Why don't you sit down, Naruto."

"I don't wa—"

"_Sit down_," she ordered. Naruto obliged, and once he was settled, she went on. "This will take some time to explain. Why don't we talk about Sakura first?"

Without waiting for a reply, Tsunade stood up and walked over to a cabinet near her mahogany desk, opened the second drawer and pulled out a rather thick file. She then opened the bottom drawer and took out another file of the same size. She carried both back to her desk and sat down, opening the front page of the top file.

"This is her file," Tsunade said, flipping through the first few pages of the first file. "Haruno Sakura, sixteen. Born on March 28, am I right?"

Naruto nodded his head slowly, unsure of where Tsunade was going with this.

Tsunade heaved a sigh before continuing.

"Sakura's been here since she was thirteen. She suffers from a very severe form of schizophrenia. I presume since you have seen her and Sasuke, you'll realise that he doesn't speak?"

"Yeah," Naruto croaked. "But Sakura-chan—"

"Claims that she can hear him, yes," Tsunade finished for him. "That is one of the most common symptoms in schizophrenia. Auditory hallucinations. And it's not just Sasuke. Sometimes, she'll recall things that staff members have never said, flying into a rage when none believe her. Sasuke's just the only one who won't speak back. It doesn't help that she's infatuated with him."

"But she knows that," Naruto said. "She told me she's the only one who can—"

"I don't know what the Haruno Sakura you created was like," Tsunade interrupted. "I haven't met her. But this Sakura—the _real_ Sakura—suffers from a severe mental disorder. Would you honestly trust anything she says?"

Thinking back, Naruto had to admit that Tsunade had a point there.

"She says she's the only one who can hear him, but we know that that's impossible. She is also highly paranoid. She thinks that people are putting thoughts into her head, but of course, it's just the hallucinations. A particular auditory hallucination of hers, which we have dubbed Inner Sakura, also manifests itself frequently. Whilst Sakura herself is sweet in nature, this 'inner form' is violent, so when it… 'takes over'—" Here, Tsunade used her fingers to make quotation marks, "—for lack of a better term, then she becomes extremely ruthless and often injures her doctors. For such a small girl, she is surprisingly strong."

"Yeah," Naruto said, giving a small half-smile. "She is."

"The rest of these are just notes, all confirming the same thing," Tsunade said, flickering through pages. She closed the file and moved onto the one beneath it. "Uchiha Sasuke… Well, where do I start with him?"

* * *

**A/N:**

The chapters are slowly, but surely, getting longer.

I had such a fun time researching possible mental disorders for the _Naruto_ gang. I've got a whole list lined up now. I can't guarantee that they're all spot on, but for the most part, the facts mentioned are accurate, courtesy of Google.

This might be my last post for some time. Check out my profile for more details.


	5. Revelation 5: This Is Your Life

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** None  
**Warnings:** Mild-violence. Abstration. Mentions of psychiatric wards and mental disorders.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

**Revelation #5:** This Is Your Life  
_It is the one you were supposed to have_

* * *

After Naruto's chat with Tsunade, she had told him to return to the cafeteria. However, by the time he had arrived back, everyone was already retiring for the night. Naruto met up with Sasuke and Sakura at the entrance, and together they made their way back to their rooms in silence for the most part. They fell behind the rest of the crowd quite quickly, and when they were about to turn the last corner that would lead to their living quarters, Sasuke caught sight of one of the cleaners and halted abruptly.

"Mother?" he croaked.

The cleaner, a slim, pretty woman in her early thirties, pretended not to have heard him and continued walking forward.

"Mother," Sasuke repeated, louder this time. He began to follow the woman, who quickened her footsteps in turn.

"Ne, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, furrowing his brows and looking to Sakura for elaboration. "Who's that?"

"Oh, that's just Sasuke's mother. He's going to say hi. I think we should wait here," Sakura said, rocking on the balls of her feet and grinning.

Raising his eyebrows at Sakura, Naruto nodded and turned his attention back to Sasuke.

"So that's her," Naruto murmured, watching as Sasuke managed to catch up to the woman and grabbed her hand.

"Mother," he heard him say again.

The woman fixed him with a pitying look before gently prying her hand away from his grasp.

"Look, Uchiha-kun. I'm sorry, but for the last time, I'm _not_ your mother. Please let me get on with my work," she said softly but firmly.

"Mother?"

"What's going on here?" a voice said, coming from behind him and Sakura.

Naruto's blood went cold. He knew that voice—

"Itachi!"

Itachi bowed his head. "Naruto-kun. Tsunade-sama had told me you had woken up, but I'm afraid my workload had prevented me from seeing you sooner. You look well."

"I—"

"Itachi!" Sasuke shouted furiously again, leaving the woman alone and stomping over to where his brother was.

"Calm down, Sasuke," Itachi said. "It's almost curfew time for the three of you anyway. You should get going."

"Mother—"

"Leave Mother alone, Sasuke," Itachi cut off smoothly. "She has a lot of work to do. Let her be."

When Sasuke made no objection, Itachi ushered them down the hall to the male living-quarters and showed Sakura to her quarters opposite.

Naruto didn't miss the soft "I'm sorry about Sasuke, Mikoto-san. We'll try our best to avoid this happening again next time" that Itachi uttered to the woman before following Sakura.

* * *

"_Sasuke's mind is in a very unique state, especially considering his young age," Tsunade continued. "He's been here since he was eight. The both of you used to get along quite well. I assume that he was a close friend of yours in your Hidden Village world?"_

"_Yeah," Naruto managed to croak out. His throat was parched._

_Tsunade, noticing the same thing, got up from her desk again and walked over to a mini-fridge in the corner of the room. She opened it and took out a small bottle of water._

"_As you've noticed, he refuses to speak. This is called catatonia. It's not recognised as a separate mental disorder, but it is a symptom of a few. Dementia is one of them." She passed him the bottle._

"_Why?" Naruto asked, opening the cap._

"_That's a good question. Why is anyone like that?" Tsunade paused. "You're a fairly intelligent boy, Naruto. I know better than anyone what you are capable of, and your mental state isn't as... unbalanced as some of your friends' ones. It's only these comas that keep you here. This is why I'm going to explain everything to you frankly. Okay?"_

_Naruto nodded._

"_Sasuke does not recognise his own mother. He remembers his father, and even his brother, who is one of the doctors in this institute, but not his mother. However, he seems to think that one of our cleaners—Mikoto, her name is—is his mother, and you have to understand how distressing that was for her the first time that Sasuke strode up to her and started calling her 'Mother'. She's even threatened to quit a few times, but she needs the money, and if Sasuke ever found out she had left..." Tsunade trailed off._

"_Mikoto was his mother's name in the re—uh, my world," Naruto muttered._

"_Strangely enough, Sasuke's real mother is also called Mikoto."_

"_How does she feel?"_

"_His mother? Oh, Lord only knows. How would you feel if your own child didn't acknowledge you as the one who gave him life?" Tsunade mused. "But she must feel devastated."_

"_Wait—" Naruto backtracked. "Did you say his brother works here?"_

"_Uchiha Itachi? Yes. He's one of our top psychoanalysts here, much to Sasuke's chagrin. In fact, he's the one that brought Sasuke here."_

* * *

That night, Naruto didn't sleep. The past few hours were reeling inside his head, and he was still trying to digest all the information Tsunade had given him by replaying the events over and over.

He brought his hands together and tried dispelling the genjutsu again. Nothing happened.

Either this was one hell of a technique, or this just might be his new life.

Naruto glanced at his bedside table. The only objects on it were a glass of water and a photo frame with a picture of a small, blond toddler running after an orange ball. Behind him was a pretty redheaded woman laughing, and the top left-hand corner of the picture was blocked out by a tanned finger.

Or maybe, just maybe, this was the life he was supposed to have lived all along.

* * *

Sasuke's mental state is derived partially from a real life situation. My godfather's mother has dementia, and she is unable to recognise many of her loved ones. Although she is not catatonic, whenever my godfather goes to visit her, she doesn't acknowledge him. She knows she has a son but she fails to recognise that _he_ is her son, despite being told numerous times.

In more pleasant news, Itachi's initial role in this story coincides almost perfectly with the recent manga chapters. My foresight may be limited, but whenever it sees something, it is spot-on. Oh yeah.

These chapters are slowly, but surely getting longer. Hm.


End file.
